Rebecca, aka @dollartreedinners on TikTok, has built a multi-million-person following by sharing accessible, creative meals made entirely from Dollar Tree finds, and now she’s going viral for her most magnificent spread yet: a full Easter dinner from a dollar store.
The Easter feast video has racked up over 750K views and 115K likes, proving that budget-friendly meals can still be packed with flavor, comfort, and joy. “I wanted this one to feel like a real feast,” Rebecca says at the start of her video, and by the end, it’s clear she more than delivered.
For under $20 (yes, a single Jackson), Rebecca cooked up a full Easter spread, complete with pineapple-stuffed glazed ham, creamy scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole with a crunchy topping, cheesy macaroni, Red Lobster-style biscuits, and cherry pie sugar cookie bars for dessert. And she only used ingredients you can find at Dollar Tree.
Like any true culinary legend, Rebecca knows dessert comes first. She starts by pressing prepared sugar cookie dough into a baking dish and popping it in the oven. Then she tops it with a reduced can of cherry pie filling and dollops on more sugar cookie dough before baking it again. Now that’s what I call scrumdiddlyumptious.
With the price of holiday hams these days (a single glazed ham at my local grocery store in New York is going for $33), Rebecca came up with a clever alternative: pineapple-stuffed deli ham slices that still feel festive, but cost a small fraction of the price.
What makes Rebecca’s tutorials so special isn’t just her creativity, although turning canned pineapple syrup into a glossy ham glaze is pretty genius. It’s the thoughtful, practical way she puts together a family meal, and teaches us how to make it.
She has an improved way of making boxed scalloped potatoes. “I prepare these differently from the box instructions,” she tells her audience. She cooks the potatoes in butter (or margarine) with milk and water on the stove for 10 minutes before pouring them all into a baking dish to ensure a hearty (not soupy) side dish.
Next, she whipped up a classic green bean casserole with all the traditional fixins’. And when her Dollar Tree didn’t have the classic French fried onions for the casserole? She didn’t panic. She improvised with panko breadcrumbs and melted margarine. Once baked, the topping became golden and still had that nostalgic crunch a green bean casserole needs.
With only so many baking dishes, Rebecca creates a divider for her larger dish using aluminum foil, baking the green beans and scalloped potatoes together.
She makes cheddar drop biscuits, following the box’s instructions and adding cheddar cheese to the mix. If you don’t have an ice cream scoop, oil two spoons and use those to portion the dough before baking. She sprinkled the leftover grated cheese from the biscuits on top of the potatoes for some extra flava-flav.
Rebecca also times out the dinner so everything comes out hot and ready at the same time. She bakes the ham, green beans, and scalloped potatoes at 425°F for 30 minutes before adding the biscuits to the oven to bake all together for 15 minutes.
While that’s all in the oven, she prepares mac and cheese. No improvements are necessary there, and it’s perfect as is.
And her audience feels it. One commenter wrote, “This will be some child’s favorite holiday meal and they won’t realize it was made on a budget, just that it was special ♥️.”
The rest of the comments section on her Easter dinner video is equally heartwarming — a rare moment where the internet seems to be in agreement:
There’s something undeniably powerful about turning a small budget into something that feels abundant, flipping the script on what it means to cook on a tight budget. “It didn’t feel like a budget meal at all,” Rebecca says at the end of her video, “and that is why I think this is my favorite Easter dinner that I’ve done to date.”
So whether you’re feeding a family or just yourself for the holiday — shoutout to the person who commented, “I wanted ham for my Easter dinner but it’s just me… I’ll be making the pineapple ham for my meal” — @dollartreedinners is proof that comfort food doesn’t need a big budget.
And with every meal she shares, Rebecca’s doing more than just providing recipes — she’s reminding them that they deserve a seat at the table this Easter (and every other day), too. Basically: The yassification of budget cooking is officially complete. Thank you, Rebecca.
For more budget-friendly meal inspiration and recipes, download the free Tasty app — no subscription required. (We have tons of helpful guides to check out, too!)
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